House Bill 1526 or An Act Banning Minors From Full-Contact Competitive Sports faced criticisms from sports communities and fans after it was filed in the House of Representatives this week.
HB 1526 prohibits underaged athletes to engage in full-contact sports such as but not limited to boxing, mixed martial arts, jiu jitsu, muay thai, judo and various forms of full-contact karate.
While it was not initially favored by involved communities, author and AKO BICOL Party-list Representative Alfredo Garbin Jr. defended that this measure seeks to improve the medical screening standards and protocols, especially among young athletes.
“Yes, the opening position taken is a ban on involving minors in full-contact competitive sports because children have died or suffered serious injuries in full-contact sports and in other sports because of the lack of end to end systemic safety measures,” he said.
Highlighting that it is still on “draft”, Garbin noted that HB 1526 is still open for inputs and improvements from other lawmakers and concerned sectors.
“Everything in HB 1526 is subject to amendments, improvements, revisions, deliberation, rational discourse,” he added.
According to the congressman, the following incidents urged him to file the bill:
1. In December 2013, a 16 year-old boxer, Jonas Joshua Garcia, suffered internal brain bleeding, went into a coma, and died. He was competing in the Central Luzon Regional Athletic Association meet. Months later, DepEd banned only elementary school students from its boxing competitions. Jonas Garcia was 16 years old, of high school age.
2. In February 2016, the University of the Philippines lost men’s football player and scholar Rogie Maglinas of Masbate. Rogie was 19 years old. Reports indicate he died because he had cancer in his skeletal muscles.
3. In September 2018, Rasta Daraliay, an 11 year-old wushu athlete died after falling from a height of four feet from his elevated bunk bed at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex athletes dormitory.
4. In January 2019, Hadia Eronico, a 12 year-old athlete from Davao Oriental was allowed to compete at the Davao Regional Athletic Meet. When she was rushed to the hospital emergency room, doctors discovered she was in advanced stage of dengue infection and died of dengue. Hadia was supposedly fit to compete because she had a medical certificate. No, she was not fit to compete. She had dengue before she went to the regional athletic meet.
5. In July 22 this year, Alyana Bautista, a 17 year-old female football player who was immunocompromised with an auto-immune disease, died of COVID-19.
Garbin ended his statement questioning the responsible individuals behind these unfortunate incidents, “Prove to Congress that you deserve to be trusted with the lives and safety of our children and teenagers.”
Photo Credit: Facebook/Alfredo Garbin